Krazy Kreators Krashing Keene

& Katch Killer Klowns in the PM: Who’s Who at the Saturday Comic Boom! Event with SRB, Part 1

You want to win this Killer Klown original brush, pen and ink sketch by Steve Bissette? You’ll have to attend the August 11th Saturday Fright Special Spooktacular this weekend in Keene, NH! Details, below…

Other than the occasional public event at the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) in White River Junction, VT, I’ve been laying pretty low as far as public appearances go (at least since the Vermont Monster Guide book tour in 2009).

My retirement from American comic conventions has—with only one exception to date—stood firm since 1999; nothing’s changed my mind since.

OK, so, I’ll be at a Cincinnati, Ohio Swamp Thing reunion next month, but other than that, if you want to find me in a public arena in 2012, you’d best make the pilgrimage to my favorite local comicshop, COMIC BOOM! in Keene, New Hampshire, on Saturday, August 11th.

I’ll be there most of the afternoon Saturday, from 1 PM thru 4:30 PM—I’ll be there along with my monsterific cartooning pal DENIS ST. JOHN (MONSTERS & GIRLS), and we’ll both have lots of comics, prints, art, sketches in hand to sell, sign, and we’ll be up for just plain ol’ schmoozing.

After hours, we’ll be ducking over to the round-the-corner Colonial Theater to catch the latest Saturday Fright Spooktacular (I haven’t missed a single one yet), for their the 35mm big-screen showing of the Chiodo Brothers‘s Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988; for more info, see Monday’s Myrant post, below).

It’s always worth creeping out of self-exile for the Comic Boom! venue and the Spooktacular!

Denis St. John:

Denis is a vet CCS alumnus (Class of 2008) and he’s the creator of Monsters & Girls, one of my favorite new horror comix. If it weren’t for my decision years ago to not review CCS-spawned comix (I can’t play favorites), I’d have sung the praises of Monsters & Girls and particularly Denis‘s just-completed serialized graphic novel Amelia on every corner of the internet. Instead, I’ve privately done all I can for and with Denis, and our annual Comic Boom! appearance is just one of those collaborative ventures.

where Rob declared Monsters & Girls: Amelia“…one of the quirkier horror stories I’ve ever read. …What makes them so enjoyable is St. John’s mixture of body horror, the humor of awkwardness, and sex. These comics are a love letter to many influences (including H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction and David Cronenberg’s films), but the biggest influence seems to be the horror comics of EC. In particular, Jack Davis seems to be a big influence here, and that can be seen in the way St. John draws his figures with slightly distorted facial features. There’s also a total unpredictability in the way each of the characters acts (possibly due to the influence of the artifacts) that twists the reader around. …The ending has a fitting, tragic twist…St. John’s art is claustrophobic, rubbery, funny, moody and outrageously designed.”

What are you waiting for? Pick up your copies this weekend, personalized by Denis!

Denis and I have contributed raffle sketches to the Spooktacular again this year—mine is up at the top of this post (above, topmost), and here’s Denis‘s sketch for the Saturday Spooktacular raffle:

But that’s not all—together, we’ve also concocted a special Killer Klown-inspired horrific clowns minicomic special for the Comic Boom! event this weekend.

If you want a copy, you can buy ‘em hot off the presses from us at Comic Boom!

Here’s a preview of our special Comic Boom! Killer Klown-inspired minicomic—available exclusively this weekend at the Comic Boom! event, from Denis and yours truly!
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Daniel Barlow:

Dan is a grand fellow who founded, along with Colin Tedford, the New England-based Trees & Hills comics creator collective. Dan is also a veteran newspaper journalist (Rutland Herald, Brattleboro Reformer) and is currently fighting the good fight as part of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR).

I’ve known Dan for a long while, and he has of late been carving out new turf photographing Vermont graveyards—as the co-founder of Green Mountain Graveyards, “an art project dedicated to photographing Vermont’s unusual, spooky and forgotten cemeteries” (says Dan)—and he’s donated one of those photos (above) to the Spooktacular raffle, “Girl in the Dark,” taken last summer at Green Mount Cemetery in Montpelier, Vt.

Dan notes, “the print is 12×12 and comes framed… I usually sell them for around $25-30.” Yep, you can win this framed photo just by showing up at the Spooktacular and entering the raffle, folks.

Or, you can buy a different one of his atmospheric graveyard photos from Dan himself at Comic Boom!

Dan will be joining us to show and sell some his his comics and graveyard prints and will be offering a wide selection of Trees & Hills anthologies and comix.

Sean Knickerbocker:

Man, Sean has been around the inky block more than his relative years would indicate. Sean attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Charlotte, NC, and just this past May he graduated (with flying colors) from CCS.

He’s a vet zine creator—no telling what goodies he’ll be packing for sale on Saturday as yet!—and is currently engaged in a brand-new venture I’m dying to tell you about, but can’t until September. Seriously.

But you should also know that Sean is a key member of the Danger Park collective and a contributor to Subterranean Comics along with Alex Bullett, Andrew Greenstone, and Dan Morris—and, like I say, they’ve really got something exciting to announce next month (that I will be happily sharing/airing here, come the time).

If you can’t wait to find out more, shit, you’re just going to have to hoof it over to Comic Boom! on Saturday and ask Sean in person, aren’t ya?

PS: I’ll have more samples of Sean‘s current work to share on Friday here at Myrant.

Tune in, especially if you’d like to have a better notion of what sort of fine fellows Denis, Dan, and our fellow CCSers be.

Some of what Chris will be peddling at Comic Boom! includes his most excellent (and hilarious) H.P. ComiCraft (a canny comics-format dissection of Lovecraft‘s fiction, including Lovecraft‘s Vermont-set classic tale “The Whisperer in Darkness”), Poser 123, and the minicomic Coffee Can Ice Cream (with Matt Young).

Michael Crosier:

Mike is currently going into his second year (senior) at CCS, and he’s debuting at least one new minicomic (FART FIELD MANUAL) at Comic Boom! this weekend, contributed a page to Denis‘s and my Killer Klowns-inspired minicomic, and will be selling the opening installment of his expansive serialized fantasy graphic novel Game World.

What’s Game World? “In a hometown arcade, four young teens are drawn to a particular game. What started as fun became an obsession to win. After a mysterious flash, the kids find themselves in another world. Are they inside the game or have they discovered a whole new realm?” GAME WORLD—when the game ends, the adventure begins!

BTW, Mike and Sean are also donating original art to the Spooktacular raffle!

PS: If that’s not enough to get your clowny asses in gear, I’ve also donated the Killer Klown original pen, brush, and ink sketch pictured below to Comic Boom! for a one-of-a-kind event raffle Saturday afternoon.

You can only win it by showing up and seeing us, or by calling Cory at Comic Boom! and making a purchase (any purchase!) before the raffle ends at 4 PM Saturday. Good luck!!!

There will be more of us at Comic Boom! on Saturday, but that’s all the introductions I can muster for today. More info, art, preview eye-candy, coming up!

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